CHAR-KOOSTA
PUBLISHED BY CONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI TRIBES, FLATHEAD AGENCY. MONT.
Vol. 2 — No. 12
November, 1958
Christmas Tree Harvest Abuses Discussed
Recently representatives of the Col-ville Tribal Council with the forester from their agency, visited the Flathead reservation to explore the possibilités of bringing the Christmas tree industry to the Colville Reservation. A short tour was made guided by forester Elmer Hei-sel of our agency. The group was impressed with the number of yards on the reservation and the amount of laborers in the yard which showed a trend of good employment for a few months, which all Indian leaders are trying to establish. The group then went into some of the nearby cutting areas, one was the Eagle pass area about 3 miles northwest of McDonald Lake. After looking at a small area where trees had been, let's use ^*ie word slaughtered, the delegation in-Jcatcd they would report to the Colville .iribal Council and give a recommendation that their forests never be opened to Christmas tree cutting.
This year folks, it looks bad in spite of our begging and pleading with the cutters to do a good job and conserve for the great many more members of the tribe who do not cut trees as well as our so called commercial cutters, looking ahead we have once again been let down, of course our example may save the Colville forest. This is a case of the selfish and undesirable cutter going to have the good cutters penalized. For illustration a block was cut off from a tree in the St. Mary Lake area and brought into the Forestry office the other day, it measured 18 inches approximately a 6 foot Christmas tree was taken out of the top. This six-foot tree would bring about 50 cents in the yard, if this tree had been split up into posts, in which about 10 posts could have been made at $.25 each, the income of that tree should have been $2.50. Our forests are controlled by the Department o f t h e Interior, n o doubt there will be different opinions next year regarding the Christmas tree enterprise. The Tribal Council has held meetings and done everything to help our people take advantage of this program, but we are licked this year, still we are critized for letting things happen like this on one side by the conservationist and the appreciative people and kicked by our own people because rules and regulations are up. Don't get your writer wrong we e very many good cutters if we could weed out the bad cutters, the problem maybe solved because our possibilities on this reservation for a growing Christmas tree industry is not lost yet. only the matter of being licked before you start.
Speaking of Conservation the hearings on the Wilderness-Roadless area bill was fine example of the thinking of a large group of the people of the U.S. The hearings were held in San Francisco November 7; Bend, Ore., November 10; Salt Lake City, November 12; and Albuquerque, N. Mexico, November 14; in San Francisco and Bend, Oregon, the sentiment was about 50 percent pro and con. In Salt Lake City there were about 70 percent opposed to about 30 percent for. No information has been received on what the feeling was in New Mexico. The conservationists are a powerful group. The professors who spoke at Salt Lake were very dramatic and sincere. A number of the conservationists are college teachers, college and university students, professional men and sportsmen clubs. Of the above category of witnesses who testified at Salt Lake, the Sportsmen clubs (there were a lot of them represented) and the Dude ranchers brought out the same old thing, the sportsmen want a place to hunt and fish and the Dude ranchers want a place to commercialize on the people in a remote area. Your writer represented the Tribal Council because of the fact of the inclusion in the bill of Indian reservations. Each witness only had four minutes which was not long enough, but some very good testimonies were presented. Of the 68 witnesses who testified only about five witnesses mentioned Indian reservations and were opposed to the bill in its interests.
The State Fish and Game Commission of Montana was represented by Bob Co-oney, professional man of the Commission. Your writer was a bit dissapointed in Mr Cooney's statement in the first place of our long public relations with the State of Montana in letting the public hunt game birds and fish at will on our reservation, with no charge to the public and still Mr Cooney never mentioned our friendship or expressed an opinion of Indian reservations being included in the bill. Mr Cooney also stated in so many words that more wilderness areas were needed and the Grizzly bear were going into remote areas and were de-minishing. The only chance of rebuttel your writer had with Mr Cooney was after the meeting, it was made clear to Mr. Cooney that the real injun sportsman on the Flathead reservation can prove there is more Grizzly seen in the Mission Range this year, than there has been in a long time, this may also be confirmed by many non-Indians who live on the reservation.
Payment of $100 to Tribe Members
A per capita payment will be made to the 4,550 enrollment members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, it was voted at a recent meeting of the Flathead Tribal Council.
It was reported that the Tribe will have anticipated cash of $641,742.72 available of which $455,000 would be distributed.
Follownig is the anticipated financial situation: available for programming $269,580.20; transferred 10-29-58, $99,362-.52; anticipated timber sales 12-15-58, $82,-800; estimated Christmas tree stumpage, $15,000; Kerr dam payments, $175,000.
Alexander E. Sloan recommended that the payment be cut to $75. He said that it should be lowered in the event of more land purchases and to keep a reserve for next year. However, other members of the Council did not agree. Alfred Senecal said it seemed to him that the $100 was giving little enough. Morris Houle said if a per capita distribution is not made, the money should be invested, and since there is no way of investing to make a substantial profit for the people, the money can very well be used during the winter months for cleaning, fuel, etc.
Personnel Changes Are Reported ~
Mr Juan Ortega has transferred from the Fort Belknap Agency to replace Mr Carl Shaddox as Soil Conservationist.
Mr. John Hardin has replaced Mr. Al-vin Sloan as Lease Clerk in the Realty Division. Mr. Hardin worked for Soil Conservation from 1949 to 1954 at San Marcos, Texas. He then went into graduate work and was employed in 1956 at Billings, Montana as loan appraiser. Before coming to the Flathead, Mr. Hardin was employed by an insurance company making loans and also worked for the Montana State Highway Commission as rights of way appraiser.
Lawrence (Johnny) Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Smith of Dixon, has recently ben employed in the IIA division as Clerk typist.
Mr. Marion England, formerly employed as Special Investigator at the Northern Cheyenne Agency, is now with the Forestry Division at this Agency as forester.
Mr. Robert Dusenberry of Charlo, Montana is the new Range Management Assistant in the Forestry division.
Mr. Kenneth Burland has received a temporary appointment as janitor.
Mrs. Eleanor Clark Benz, who was formerly employed as clerk-typist in the division of Public Health, is back at work in the same position.
Mrs. Richard Baird, a former employee of the Army at Camp Hanford as clerk-stenographer, is now with the division of Public Health.
The new dentist for the Public Health Service replacing Dr. F. Vavra is Dr. Frank McGrevey of Ronan, with Ernestine Roullier as the new dental assistant.